Britain

Nothing illustrates better the total collapse not just of constitutional safeguards but of any semblance of critical thinking in the British news media than the fact that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s extraordinary decision to ignore the opinions of the British Parliament on a question of war or peace in Syria is receiving barely any criticism in the media.
On the contrary shrill voices in the media are egging her on to go to war without consulting Parliament.

(ANTIMEDIA Op-ed) London, UK — As the United States continues to experience sensational mass shootings and many Americans call for gun control, the London is dealing with its own rash of violent crime, mostly in the form of knife attacks. Countless memes circulating on the internet have pointed out that despite the British government’s harsh gun laws, criminals […]

Sergei Skripal and his daughter are recovering and “improving rapidly” after their exposure to the deadly chemical nerve agent Novichok, in what appears to be “a miracle”. Since Yulia’s improvement, whence she regained consciousness around two weeks ago, reports say she has since been discharged from the hospital.

UK’s opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on Wednesday, told reporters that Foreign Minister Borish Johnson “needs to answer some questions.” Boris has continued his story about being “absolutely” certain that Russia used a military grade nerve agent, specifically Novichok, [or was it something like Novichok?] to poison the ex double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, which allegations have led to a massive degree of anti-Russian hysteria in the UK media and government countermeasures against Russia

If during the first three weeks of the Skripal crisis it was the British who made the running, over the last two weeks the initiative has slowly shifted to the Russians.
As is often the way, the Russians – caught by surprise by a crisis that seemed to come out of nowhere – initially responded reactively.
However as the weeks have passed they have gradually found their footing, and are now starting to score points.

Leading Italian political parties have each issued statements in condemnation of Italy’s present government in its decision to follow Britain in expelling Russian diplomats as a countermeasure over allegations of Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons in assassination attempt on ex double spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter.

The latest bizarre twist in the Skripal case came earlier today in the form of remarkable transcript Viktoria Skripal has provided of what she claims is a telephone conversation she has had with Yulia Skripal, who is currently in Salisbury hospital recovering from the Novichok attack.
My colleague Vladimir Rodzianko has set out this transcript in full.

The events of the last few days in the Skripal case provide an object lesson of why in criminal investigations the rules of due process should always be adhered to.  The reason the British now find themselves in difficulties is because they have not adhered to them.
This despite the fact that – as they all too often like to remind us – it was the British themselves who largely created them.

(ANTIWAR.COM) — Weeks of repeatedly blaming Russia for the Skripal poisonings is starting to look pretty embarrassing for the British government. Today, scientists at Porton Down said they were unable to say where the poison actually came from. That’s a big problem, as British officials have long insisted that the poison was Russian in origin. The scientists would […]

Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghi together with the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi are presently in Moscow to meet with their Russian counterparts. The visit is largely to act as a show of force to Washington to demonstrate the closeness of Russian and Chinese militaries, as well as to show their backing of Russia at the 7th Moscow Conference on International Security. RT reports: